HR Happy Hour 487 - The State of Employee Benefits Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane Guest: Misty Guinn, Benefitfocus This episode of The HR Happy Hour Show is made possible by Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement, and insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes.  More than half of business owners with 10-500 employees say the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine is causing them to start, or start planning, their return to the workplace.  If you're thinking about instituting a vaccination policy, download Paychex's latest e-book, "Managing COVID-19 Vaccinations and the Return to Work," to learn about key considerations for developing your policy, as well as important health and safety measures for establishing a safe and productive return to work.  Go to payx.me/ebook-vaccines to download your copy of the e-book, today. This week we were joined by Misty Guinn, Director of Customer Advocacy at Benefitfocus to talk about the State of Employee Benefits.  We reviewed benefits data on enrollment, selection processes, and opportunities.  We learned that having a smarter healthcare consumer is the ultimate goal, and talked about barriers to adoption and how those can be overcome, as well as generational differences in adoption.  We discussed the uptick in supplemental insurance benefits, and how to improve employees engagement with their benefits overall. This was a great show.  Thank you Misty, for joining us!  Remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts.